


Different With You

by ead13



Series: The Genius of Shornhelm [2]
Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: F/M, OC is Arch-Mage at this point, Political Marriages, inability to trust, past trauma, taking things slowly, what is love?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 11:48:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21626953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ead13/pseuds/ead13
Summary: Yves Montclair has no idea what a romantic relationship looks like; his wife wasn't exactly his choice, and she ended up helping in the plot to be rid of him. He's convinced that he's too broken (not to mention too boring) to be desirable to anyone, but when he looks at Brelyna, he wishes that wasn't true.
Relationships: Original Male Breton/Brelyna Maryon
Series: The Genius of Shornhelm [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1558729
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Different With You

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what this is. I've had this end game in the back of my mind while I write my main work even though it won't end up there. I guess I'll just share it with the world in whatever form it takes. As for now, just a one-shot.

“…Yves?”

Brelyna’s gentle voice brought him out of his trance. Somewhere between shedding his tunic and unfastening his pants, he’d gotten lost in a tangle of bad memories. Oh, he’d have to stop that. Brelyna deserved better. He let his eyes drift back to her, draped across his fine canopy bed with her dark skin somehow glowing against the silks his position as Arch-mage had afforded him. Just like he used to have. But not the same woman dressed down to her smalls, not even close. Somehow, that made his throat constrict. He was beyond nervous all of a sudden, and he knew why. It was like being a virgin all over again.

“I’m sorry,” he finally muttered, shaking his head. Before she could respond, he pulled the waist of his trousers to his knees and gingerly stepped out of them. It shouldn’t have mattered, but it felt…unsettling, being this bare to anyone else. Vulnerable in a way he hated.

She knew it. She knew so much more than anyone else, mostly because she was one of the few who bothered to pay attention. “You, umm, have done this before, right?”

“Of course!” He exhaled, the rush of air sounding dangerously close to an offended huff, and made his way over to join her on the bed. “I mean, it has obviously been a while. I was kind of busy trying not to die here in Skyrim, no time or energy for amorous dalliances.” But damn, it had been a very, VERY long time, and even then it had always been awkward. He tried to envision what he should do next, but somehow it always went back to Laurent. Laurent was the ladies’ man, always a smooth talker and an attractive lover. Yves just had magical abilities and no people skills. That’s why his wife…

His breath was suddenly choked off, and her concerned touch had him recoiling on instinct.

The signs were obvious to her. “You’ve been hurt, isn’t that it?” she softly murmured, refusing to give up despite how he flinched. He allowed her to massage his forearm in an attempt to relax him.

Yves struggled to find the right words. “Considering the only person I’ve slept with poisoned my drink so she could get with my younger brother…probably.” He turned away from her worried gaze. Who was he fooling? He couldn’t be any good for Brelyna; he wasn’t any good for anyone. All they ever wanted were his money and connections, not him, even before he’d been broken. Maybe even now, she only wanted him because he was the Arch-mage, though a part of him couldn’t deny that their increased closeness before his nomination indicated deeper feelings.

“You can’t be serious!” He could hear the horror in her voice.

His response was a dark chuckle. “Political marriage. I’d never even spoken to her before our wedding. You can imagine how fun that first night was.”

Brelyna sighed in disgust. “I know the type. House Telvanni is full of that. It was definitely another good reason for me to leave Morrowind.” She used her free hand to guide his face back towards her, and he was stunned by how calm and accepting she was of his relative inexperience and trauma. “You didn’t actually love her, did you?”

“Well…” A lump formed in his throat. What he was about to admit made him feel guilty, because it would be so much easier to deny it for Brelyna’s sake. “I tried. I mean, I thought that if I was going to have to be…intimate…with her, I should care about her. I thought that maybe we were getting to a place where we could have an actual relationship besides the legal ties, but…” He gritted his teeth in an attempt to keep the tears from his eyes. “She could have cared less about a relationship. Nothing I tried made any difference.”

“Yves…” Despite how mortified he was when a tear escaped, she simply kissed it away, wrapping her arms around his neck. “I wouldn’t be here right now like this if I didn’t want you, and that’s the truth. If I had cared about titles and prestige, I wouldn’t have left home. I certainly wouldn’t have come all the way to Winterhold to latch onto yours.”

His laugh was brittle. “That’s certainly true.”

“So, what I’m trying to say is…the last thing I want to do is hurt you. I’ve, well,” Brelyna drew back, biting her bottom lip nervously, “You have your quirks, to be certain, but I’ve come to care for you a great deal, Yves. And if you aren’t ready to take things all the way tonight, then I’d be perfectly content to curl up next to you and fall asleep.”

“You’d…want to lie with me? Without actually…you know…engaging in…?”

“That shouldn’t be so hard to believe,” she replied firmly, reaching for his hand. “I like the idea of being close to you. Come on, let’s just crawl under the sheets and…”

Not even his immense pride could keep him from breaking down completely in that moment. He buried his face in his hands to hide the ugliness of his tears, and the gnawing shame of weakness. It was a sight Brelyna could never have imagined. Yves was always aloof and in control of the situation, painting himself so often as the embodiment of logic and self-reliance. It hit her like a ton of bricks in this moment just how much pain and loneliness he’d been hiding under that cold exterior. “No one has ever…she never…why would you…?”

Brelyna pulled him close. All she wanted was to make that pain go away, the pain that looked so wrong on him. For someone who seemed to have it all, it was unsettling to find herself the pillar of support for him as he fell to pieces. “You are more than your name. You are more than your skills. You are a man, Yves, your own man, and if you’d let me in, I’d gladly care for you as you are, not just as the man you try to be.”

She felt him shudder in her arms as he resisted the urge to touch her. She was wrong. “You don’t understand, Brelyna…there is no other side to me. If you are hoping for someone else, someone better, you will be sadly disappointed.”

“Yves, I didn’t say better, I said real.”

“But I’m afraid.”

Three little words never held such power for either of them. He braced himself for a disgusted reply that never came. Instead, she whispered “That was a good start, Yves Montclair. I can work with that.” 

Before he knew what was happening, she was guiding him down until he was lying on the mattress alongside her. His red-rimmed eyes blinked in confusion as he looked into her gentle face. “I don’t know what it is like, to continuously live up to expectations. I was the opposite of you; I could never live up to the ones put on me. I was never enough for the House Telvanni name. Marriage offers weren’t exactly pouring in, not that I’d complain. To spite them, I found strings of one-night-stands, looking for a way to feel like someone cared about me. It didn’t work, none of them meant anything, so finally I ran away to Winterhold and put that to the side. I tried to focus on me and improving myself. Now, with you, I feel like someone actually sees me for the first time. Honestly, I’m afraid too. I’m afraid I’m not good enough for such a talented man like you, and my own inadequacy will mean I can’t earn your affection long-term. Still, I want to trust you. I’m so desperate to be wrong.”

Having said her piece, Brelyna actually turned so her back was to him. “If you want, you should touch me. I would like it very much if you would, though I don’t want to pressure you. Just…a sign, I suppose.”

She squeezed her eyes shut, unable to guess whether Yves would find the nerve or the desire to do as she requested. The sudden brush of his fingertips along her side sent a jolt through her, one of both surprise and gratification. His unsure hand wandered until it had wrapped around her waist. “So, what you’re telling me is that we’re both experienced in the physical but clueless about the emotional.”

“I suppose that’s right.”

Now he bent his head to plant a cautious kiss to the side of her neck. His heart sped up when she unconsciously tilted her head back, exposing herself further to his mouth. He repeated his action again, moaning against her dusky skin. “I want to try, Brelyna. With you.”

Her response was the threading of her fingers with his fingers on her stomach. “So do I.”

He paused. “Umm…to be clear, not THAT. Not tonight, anyway. Just…more of this?”

Brelyna laughed lightly. “That’s enough for me.”


End file.
